Abstract

The 100 images in this publication have been selected from the collections of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory as enduring favorites of the staff, researchers, media, designers, and the public over time. They represent photographs of a variety of geological phenomena and eruptive events, chosen for their content, quality of exposure, and aesthetic appeal. The number was kept to 100 to maintain the high resolution desirable. Since 1997, digital imagery has been the predominant mode of photographically documenting the eruption. Many of these photos, from 1998 to the present, are viewable on the website: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/archive/

Episode numbers are given as E-numbers in parentheses before each caption that pertains to the Puu OoKupaianaha eruption; details of the episodes are given in table 1. Hawaiian words and place names are listed below to facilitate searching. All images included in this collection are owned by the U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and are in the public domain. Therefore, no permission or fee is required for their use. Please include photo credit for the photographer and the U.S. Geological Survey. We assume no responsibility for the modification of these images.

Introduction

The eruption has progressed through three main epochs: 3.5 years of episodic fountaining, mainly from the Puu Oo central vent, producing a cinder-and-spatter cone and aa flows; 5.5 years of continuous effusion from the Kupaianaha vent, producing a shield and tube-fed pahoehoe flows; and over 11 years (as of January 2003) of nearly continuous effusion from flank vents on Puu Oo, again producing a shield and tube-fed pahoehoe flows.

Episodes

The Puu OoKupaianaha eruption began on January 3, 1983. For the first six months (episodes 13), fissures erupted intermittently along the middle east rift zone from Napau Crater to Kalalua. In June 1983, the activity became localized at the Puu Oo vent, which straddles the boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. For the next three years (episodes 447), Puu Oo erupted approximately every three to four weeks, usually for less than 24 hours. Spectacular lava fountains that catapulted lava as high as 470 m above the vent characterized these eruptive episodes.

The high fountains produced mainly aa flows, the more viscous and gas-poor of the two types of Hawaiian lava. Aa flows from Puu Oo were typically 35 m thick and advanced at speeds of 50500 m/h, picking up speed and narrowing on steep slopes. Because of the short duration of each eruptive episode, none of these flows reached the ocean or the coastal highway. The flows posed an immediate threat, however, to the sparsely populated Royal Gardens subdivision, located on a steep slope 6 km southeast of the vent. Aa flows reached the subdivision in as little as 13 hours during several eruptive episodes and destroyed 16 houses in 1983 and 1984.

Fallout from the towering lava fountains built a cinder-and-spatter cone 255 m high, over twice the height of any other cone on the east rift zone. The cone was strikingly asymmetrical, because the prevailing trade winds caused most of the airborne fragments to pile up on the southwest side of the conduit.

19861992: Continuous Eruption of Kupaianaha Sends Lava to the Sea

In July 1986, the vertical conduit of Puu Oo ruptured, and the eruption shifted to a new vent, Kupaianaha, 3 km northeast of Puu Oo. This event marked the end of episodic high fountaining and the beginning of five-and-a-half years of nearly continuous, quiet effusion (episode 48). A lava pond formed over the new vent, and its frequent overflows resulted in a broad, low shield that reached its maximum height of 56 m in less than a year.

After weeks of continuous eruption, the main channel exiting the pond gradually developed a roof as crust at the sides of the channel extended across the lava stream. This was the beginning of a lava tube that would eventually extend to the ocean. Lava tubes insulate rivers of lava from both heat and gas loss. Flows that break out of tubes are usually pahoehoe, a type of lava more fluid than aa. The surface of a cooled pahoehoe flow can be flat and smooth, ropy, shelly, or undulating.

A broad field of tube-fed pahoehoe spread gradually from Kupaianaha to the ocean, 12 km to the southeast, taking three months to cover the same distance that aa from Puu Oo traveled in less than a day. By early November 1986, the flows were visible on the steep slope above the small community of Kapaahu, and their leisurely pace was no longer reassuring.

On November 28, 1986, flows from Kupaianaha reached the ocean, cutting a swath through Kapaahu and closing the coastal highway. A few weeks later, the lava took a more easterly course and overran 14 homes on the northwest edge of Kalapana in a single day. Fortunately for the rest of the village, this flow abruptly stagnated when the tube became blocked near the vent.

Over the next three years, lava destroyed a few homes on either side of the ever-widening flow field. Initially, the course of pahoehoe flows was strongly influenced by topography, but, eventually, even the highest ground was inundated. The depth of the lava increased as flows covered many areas repeatedly and the tube-fed flows grew from within, inflating as more lava was intruded under the already solid crust of the flow front.

From mid1987 through 1989, most of the lava that erupted from Kupaianaha flowed directly to the sea. Steam explosions at the ocean entry fragmented the lava, creating black sand that collected to form new beaches in protected bays down-current of the lava entry. New, albeit unstable, acreage was added to the island as lava deltas built seaward over a steep submarine slope of fragmented lava.

The long-lived tube system delivering lava to the ocean began to break down in the spring of 1989, and surface flows were a common sight, particularly on the steep slope (pali) above the coastal plain. Lava flows encroached on new territory, overrunning the Wahaula Visitor Center and adjoining residences in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The eruption began to change in 1990, when a series of nine pauses, lasting from one to four days, interrupted the steady effusion of lava. At the same time, the eruption entered its most destructive phase. In March 1990, the flows turned toward Kalapana, an area cherished for its historic sites and black sand beaches. By the end of the summer, the entire community, including a church, store, and 100 homes, lay buried under 1525 m of lava. In May 1990, a Federal Disaster Declaration was issued for Kalapana and all other areas previously affected by the eruption.

As the flows advanced eastward, they took to the sea, covering the palm-lined Kaimu Bay with a plain of lava that extends 300 m beyond the original shoreline. In late 1990, a new lava tube diverted lava away from Kalapana and back into the national park, where flows again entered the ocean.

During the five-and-a-half years that Kupaianaha reigned, repeated collapses of the Puu Oo conduit gradually formed a crater approximately 300 m in diameter. A lava pond appeared sporadically at the bottom of the crater starting in 1987; after 1990 it was present most of the time.

The volume of lava erupted from Kupaianaha steadily declined in 1991. Concurrently the level and activity of the Puu Oo lava pond rose. In November 1991, fissures opened between Puu Oo and Kupaianaha and erupted for three weeks. Kupaianaha continued to erupt during this event (episode 49), but its output was waning. On February 7, 1992, the Kupaianaha vent was dead.

19921997: The Return to Puu Oo

Ten days later, the eruption returned to Puu Oo. Lava erupted in low fountains along a fissure on the west flank of the massive cone. This was the first in a series of flank vents that were active for the next five years (episodes 5053). As at Kupaianaha, the style of the eruption was nearly continuous, quiet effusion.

Episodes 5053 built a lava shield 45 m high and 1 km in diameter that banked up against the western flank of Puu Oo. In November 1992, lava crossed the Chain of Craters Road in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and entered the ocean at Kamoamoa, 11 km from the vents. Over the next month, tube-fed pahoehoe flows buried the Kamoamoa archaeological site, the National Parks campground and picnic area, and the black sand beach formed earlier in the eruption by flows from Kupaianaha entering the ocean farther east. From the end of 1992 through January 1997, tubes fed lava to the ocean almost continuously, broadening the episode 5053 flow field, which lies mostly within the National Park.

Beginning in 1993, collapse pits appeared on the west flank of Puu Oo as the magma feeding the flank vents undermined that side of the cone. Collapse pits had engulfed most of the west flank by the end of 1996.

January 1997: Cone Collapse Heralds Fissure Eruption

On the night of January 30, 1997, Puu Oo cone changed dramatically. Magma drained from the Puu Oo conduit, causing, first, the crater floor, then the west wall of the cone, to collapse. Shortly thereafter, new fissures broke open and erupted briefly in and near Napau Crater. The fissure eruption, designated episode 54, lasted 22 hours.

The collapse at Puu Oo left a large gap in the west side of the cone. The rubble-lined crater was now 210 m deep.

February 1997 to Present: Eruption of Puu Oo Flank Vents Resumes

Episode 54 was followed by the longest eruptive hiatus in more than 10 years. Twenty-four days passed before episode 55 began on February 24, 1997, when lava rose through the rubble on the floor of the crater to form a new pond. Lava erupted outside the crater a month later, when new vents opened on the west and southwest flanks of the cone.

In April 1997, a single vent on the west side of the crater replaced the active lava pond in Puu Oo. Flows from this vent intermittently ponded at the craters east end. In June 1997, the lava rose until it overtopped the gap in the west wall of Puu Oo formed by the January 1997 collapse. Lava spilled from the crater for the first time in 11 years. Subsequent crater overflows overtopped the east crater rim and extended as far as 1.5 km downrift. The spillovers were brief events, ending when the pond drained through conduits in the crater floor.

Tube-fed flows from the episode55 flank vents reached the ocean in July 1997 near the eastern boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Episode 55 flows have subsequently buried much of the episode5053-flow field. In early 2000, flows crossed the eastern boundary of the park and encroached on private property. During the next two years, lava overran five abandoned houses in Royal Gardens subdivision, bringing the total number of structures destroyed by this eruption to 189 by the end of May 2002.

Table 1. Details of episodes 155

Episode no.

Episode start
date

Episode start
time, H.S.T.

Episode end
Date

Episode end
time, H.S.T.

Repose interval
(days)

Episode
duration (days)

1

1/3/83

0:31

1/23/83

0:00

0

4.1

2

2/25/83

9:00

3/4/83

14:51

33

7.3

3

3/28/83

1:00

4/9/83

2:57

23.5

12.1

4

6/13/83

10:25

6/17/83

14:13

65.3

4.2

5

6/29/83

12:51

7/3/83

7:15

11.9

3.8

6

7/22/83

15:30

7/25/83

16:30

19.3

3.0

7

8/15/83

7:41

8/17/83

16:00

20.6

2.3

8

9/6/83

5:11

9/7/83

5:26

19.5

1.0

9

9/15/83

15:41

9/17/83

19:20

8.4

2.2

10

10/5/83

1:06

10/7/83

16:50

17.2

2.7

11

11/5/83

23:50

11/7/83

18:45

29.3

1.8

12

11/30/83

4:47

12/1/83

15:45

22.4

1.5

13

1/20/84

17:24

1/22/84

11:23

50.1

1.8

14

1/30/84

17:45

1/31/84

13:18

8.3

0.8

15

2/14/84

19:40

2/15/84

15:01

14.3

0.8

16

3/3/84

14:50

3/4/84

22:31

17

1.3

17

3/30/84

4:48

3/31/84

3:24

25.3

1.0

18

4/18/84

18:00

4/21/84

5:33

18.6

2.5

19

5/16/84

5:00

5/18/84

0:50

25

1.8

20

6/7/84

21:04

6/8/84

6:25

20.8

0.4

21

6/30/84

10:28

6/30/84

18:27

22.2

0.3

22

7/8/84

19:30

7/9/84

10:17

8

0.6

23

7/28/84

12:00

7/29/84

5:40

19.1

0.8

24

8/19/84

21:52

8/20/84

17:25

21.7

0.8

25

9/19/84

16:04

9/20/84

5:32

29.9

0.6

26

11/2/84

11:40

11/2/84

16:36

43.3

0.2

27

11/20/84

0:05

11/20/84

10:06

17.3

0.4

28

12/3/84

19:05

12/4/84

9:41

13.4

0.6

29

1/3/85

13:15

1/4/85

5:04

29.1

0.7

30

2/4/85

5:46

2/5/85

2:46

31

0.9

31

3/13/85

6:00

3/14/85

4:55

36.1

1.0

32

4/21/85

15:16

4/22/85

9:06

38.4

0.8

33

6/12/85

23:06

6/13/85

4:53

51.6

0.3

34

7/6/85

19:03

7/7/85

8:50

23.6

0.6

35

7/26/85

2:52

7/26/85

9:52

18.8

0.3

35a

7/27/85

4:14

8/12/85

4:30

0.7

16.0

36

9/2/85

14:00

9/2/85

23:35

21.1

0.4

37

9/24/85

18:08

9/25/85

6:19

21.8

0.5

38

10/21/85

3:00

10/21/85

11:24

25.9

0.4

39

11/13/85

15:34

11/14/85

1:24

23.2

0.4

40

1/1/86

13:09

1/2/86

2:38

48.5

0.6

41

1/27/86

20:35

1/28/86

7:57

25.8

0.5

42

2/22/86

15:15

2/23/86

4:20

25.3

0.5

43

3/22/86

4:50

3/22/86

15:56

27.1

0.5

44

4/13/86

20:54

4/14/86

7:56

22.2

0.5

45

5/7/86

22:41

5/8/86

11:06

23.6

0.5

46

6/2/86

2:29

6/2/86

13:20

24.6

0.5

47

6/26/86

4:19

6/26/86

16:35

23.6

0.5

48a-b

7/18/86

12:05

7/19/86

9:30

21.8

0.9

48

7/20/86

8:30

2/7/92

ND

1

2,028.0

49

11/8/91

4:45

11/26/91

ND

0

17.8

50

2/17/92

~19:30

3/3/92

1:30

10

14.3

51

3/7/92

12:45

9/27/92

~6:00

4.5

197.7

52

10/3/92

~3:30

2/20/93

14:50

5.9

140.5

53

2/20/93

14:50

1/29/97

18:52

0

1,439.2

54

1/30/97

2:40

1/31/97

0:33

0.3

0.9

55

2/24/97

7:00

ongoing

24.3

ongoing

References

Heliker, C.C., and Mattox, T.N., 2003, Puu Oothe first 20 years: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1676 [available on the World Wide Web at https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1676/ ].

Contents

This publication contains 100 digitized color 35-mm images of eruptions of Puu Oo and Kupaianaha from 1983 to 1997, designed for use by the interested public, multimedia producers, desktop publishers, and the high-end printing industry. The digital images are stored in the images folder and can be read across Macintosh, Windows, DOS, OS/2, SGI, UNIX system-based, and Linux platforms with applications that can read JPG (JPEG  Joint Photographic Experts Group format), TIF (TIFF  Tagged Image File Format), or PCD (Kodaks PhotoCD (YCC) format) files. Throughout this publication, the image numbers match the file names, figure captions, thumbnail labels, and other references. At the time of this publication, Kodaks policy on the distribution of color-management files is still unresolved, and so none is included here. However, using the Universal Ektachrome or Universal Kodachrome transforms found in your software will provide excellent color. In addition to TIF and PhotoCD (PCD) files, this publication contains large (14.2x19.5) and small (4x6) screen-resolution (72 dots per inch; dpi) images in JPEG format. These undergo downsizing and compression relative to the TIF and PhotoCD images. Each of these resolutions is located in the following folders:

TIF format: /images/TIF/ (1.77 GB)

PhotoCD format (PCDs): /images/PCD/ (490 MB)

14.2x19.5: /images/JPG/large_screen/ (16.5 MB)

4x6: /images/JPG/small_screen/ (2.1 MB)

Images

This publication presents text and 100 photographs showing volcanic activity of Puu Oo and Kupaianaha. The images are presented in a variety of ways:

Album in Web-browser (HTML) Format

An album is provided here as an HTML file. Each image is first presented as a 4x6 image. Clicking on any 4x6 image will bring up a larger version (14 wide or 10 high). Use your browsers Back button to return to the album. The color palate contains 16.7 million colors.

Accessibility

The content within this publication is presented in several formats. The HTML forms (index.html; this file, and album.html) are presented with alternative text to make them fully accessible using assistive technology such as screen readers; they comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 508. As the PDF forms (DDS-80.pdf, contact_sheet.pdf, thumbnails.pdf, and the two slideshow PDFs) contain the same images and the same text, it was unnecessary to tag them for accessibility.

Text and Photographs in Acrobat (PDF) Format

To view PDF files in this publication, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download the latest version at no cost using the button below.

Book in Acrobat (PDF) Format

A book is provided here as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (DDS-80.pdf). The book includes the complete text, photographs, and captions with each image in print- quality (3072x2048 pixels; 4x6 512 dpi).

Contact Sheet in Acrobat (PDF) Format

A contact sheet collection is provided here as PDF file. It consists of the 100 photographs with image numbers. It contains five pages with 20 shots to the page. You can print it on standard letter paper or view it on your screen. The image numbers match the file names in the images folder for the TIF, JPG, and PCD files.

Slideshow in Acrobat (PDF) Format

A slideshow is provided in the slideshow folder as a pair of Adobe Acrobat PDF files, slideshow1024.pdf (9.9 MB) or slideshow1920.pdf (24.7 MB). The images in slideshow1024.pdf are 1024 pixels wide or 768 pixels high, typical of what monitors up to 17 use. The images in slideshow1920.pdf are 1900 pixels wide or 1200 pixels high, typical of what monitors up to 23 use. If you are using a smaller monitor, select the smaller file because it will load and display faster. To run either slideshow, you need to open it directly with Acrobat Reader rather than through this HTML front end with its browser plugin. To do this, opne the slideshow folder linked below, and open the slideshow file of your choice.

Tip: To automate the slideshow, open Acrobat Reader, select Acrobat , Preferences, Full Screen... and check Advance Every 3 Seconds. Then open the slideshow. To exit the slideshow at any time, hit the Esc button.

(Older versions of Acrobat Reader have the automate choice under File, Preferences, Full Screen or else Edit, Preferences, General, Full Screen... ).

Thumbnails in Acrobat (PDF) Format

The thumbnails from the inside front cover of the CDROM jewel box are provided here as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (thumbnails.pdf). This file consists of a set of three small (4 ¾) pages that show a tiny version of each image and its image number. For those who want to make copies of this CDROM or download and record a CDROM of this publication from the Web, printing this file will give a convenient view of the contents.

Individual Images

The small-screen images (432x288 pixels) used in the HTML album, the large-screen images (landscape, 1024x683 pixels; portrait, 768x512 pixels) used in both the HTML and PDF slideshow, and print-quality (3072x2048 pixels) images in TIF and PCD format and used in the PDF album are available individually using the links below.

Kodak PhotoCD (PCD) Format

For users with commercial software that can read and print PCD files, the photographs are provided in this publication in that format in the PCD folder which is in the images folder. In the hierarchy of file formats, PhotoCD (YCC) resides above BMP, EPS, GIF, JPEG, MOV, PCX, PICT, PSD, TIF, TIFF, etc., enabling end users to go from YCC to other formats but not in the other direction without losing image quality. The latest information about PhotoCD is on the World Wide Web at http://www.kodak.com/go/photocd. Each 24-bit color image is stored at five resolutions:

Information about This Publication

The scans for this publication were made in the Western Publications Group of the U.S. Geological Survey from the original slides using a Nikon LS-1000 film scanner on a Macintosh G4/500 computer running Mac OS 9.2.2. The resulting TIF files were edited in Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 and converted to PhotoCD (PCD) image-pac files using Kodak BuildIt software. The same TIF files were used to generate the PDF and JPG files on this disc. The small-screen images were made with JPG compression set to 3; the large-screen images were made with JPG compression set to 9. The book PDF file was constructed using Adobe InDesign 2.0.1 page-layout software on a Macintosh G4/dual 1.25-GHz computer running Mac OS X Version 10.2.6; the Acrobat Distiller settings were 512 dpi using JPG medium compression. The master for the CDROM version was made on a LaCie CDBP-401248A CDROM recorder using Roxio Toast Titanium 5.2 software for Macintosh set at ISO-9660 Level II CDROM format with Macintosh names (compatible with Windows) and Apple Extensions.
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